macrumors member

Glad I caught this fast - double checked what I had heard and it was actually Toshibas (along with the Momentus) that came with stories of hot drives and low battery. I'll edit out the WD comment, I haven't heard anything about the Scorpio.

macrumors 65816

Personally, I'm against 7200rpm drives in a laptop - I had vibration problems and loss of battery when I put one in my wife's white Macbook. However, times have changed, so this may not be as much of an issue any more...

I recently bought a 250GB Samsung HM250HI to replace the pokey 160GB Toshiba in the Macbook - both were 5400rpm and 8MB cache, but the Samsung is a single-platter drive. It made a WORLD of difference - its even faster than the 7200rpm I have previously installed (a Seagate 7200.4).

Moral of the story: It ain't all about RPMs; a 5400 can be just as fast as a 7200 if its the right drive. Research first - buy second.

(BTW, OP are you dead-set on eBay/Amazon? If not, try newegg.com - great prices, even better customer support. I can't recommend them highly enough.)

macrumors P6

You will find plenty of people as supporters and detractors of the various brands based on their own personal experience. This person used a Seagate and it died, so Seagate sucks. This person uses a WD and it runs good, so WD rules. Truth is, it is about personal preferences, and much of the performance differences between the drives and brands are more perceived than actual. The same is true of heat, battery drain, vibration, and speed. Everyone's expectations are different in that regard.

The bottom line is, pick a brand with the specs you want and enjoy it. Regardless of your research it could vibrate, run loud, run hot or even die just as easily as the next brand.

FWIW, I use the WD Scorpio Blue and have a very good experience with it
But you would probably be just as happy with another drive if you don't overanalyze it

Not in my case, although in general I must agree with you. I had a WD that was horrible, beachballing every time I moved the mouse, and then the 7,200 Seagate I replaced it with was (is) very good indeed. No perceptible vibration or noise, excellent speed, and only a little (10%?) more battery drain. Like you said, everyone has a different experience, so it's best to discard your preconceptions. Switch drives 'till you get one that works for you, use the ones that don't in USB cases for backup (how's that for a luxurious strategy?). Anyway that is what I had to do after the "Oh so highly recommended" WD Scorpio Blue refused to work in my MacBook Pro. (It works fine in a USB case). There are too many factors involved here to draw any definite conclusions on which HD will work in any particular laptop model. Despite that I still like my MacBook Pro.

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 6502

Agreed; I'd go with a 5400 RPM Scorpio Blue from WD. Even though I prefer Seagate over WD, I have to admit that that particular drive has been getting better reviews than the Seagate equivalent. (and is five dollars cheaper)

macrumors 601

macrumors 6502

If money isn't an issue, consider a 256gb SSD drive. I downgraded back to a HDD at one stage on the MBP and couldn't stand the slowness of it. SSD made everything responsive again when I put it back in.

macrumors 6502

i have the seagate 7200.4 500gb (without g sensor) and it works perfectly. i still get 6-7 hours battery life on 40% brightness, browsing, itunes. it runs just as cool as my old 5400 (a few degrees hotter, when im working it), and i dont notice any considerable vibration or noise. the speed is great and really lit up my macbook especially with 4gb of ram.

the older versions of this drive were the ones giving the problems, but now they're good. a customer service rep at owc told me this and he uses one himself.

also the seagate 7200.4 beats the hitachi 7200 in almost every single aspect when tested.

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